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I tried to measure HN interest in Crowd Sourcing challenges to Patent Trolls (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5573778).

It is very commendable that rackspace is taking this to task on both fronts, individual patent challenges and lobbying efforts to change the law. However, this also has the immediate effect of encouraging trolls to go after the little guys and no longer companies who can afford litigate.

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I always thought that patent holders cannot make money suing the little guys.

But all they have to do is threaten to sue...

Patent trolls try to force them to settle for nominal amounts to avoid litigation, one example I heard is a troll sending demands to the end users of copy machines "that scan to email" instead of the manufacturers and retailers. At that point it is a numbers game if they get 1% of end users to pay $1000 it adds up. Now that is some of the more egregious (maybe unlawful) examples but it will become more common.

Edit: This is a link to one article about my example (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/meet-the-nice-guy...) it seems the troll went after small business and demanded $1,000/employee using the scan to email function.

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